FROM LONDON TO NEW YORK 



T HAD imagined that the next best thing to seeing 

 England would be to see Scotland ; but as this 

 latter pleasure was denied me, certainly the next best 

 thing was seeing Scotland's greatest son. Carlyle has 

 been so constantly and perhaps justly represented as 

 a stormy and wrathful person, brewing bitter denunci- 

 ation for America and Americans, that I cannot forbear 

 to mention the sweet and genial mood in which we 

 found him — a gentle and affectionate grandfather, with 

 his delicious Scotch brogue and rich melodious talk, 

 overflowing with reminiscences of his earlier life, of 

 Scott and Goethe and Edinburgh, and other men and 

 places he had known. Learning I was especially inter- 

 ested in birds, he discoursed of the lark and nightin- 

 gale and mavis, framing his remarks about them in 

 some episode of his personal experience, and investing 

 their songs with the double charm of his description 

 and his adventure. 



" It is only geese who get plucked there," said my 

 companion after we had left — a man who had known 

 Carlyle intimately for many years ; " silly persons who 

 have no veneration for the great man, and come to 



